The availability of injured San Jose State quarterback Nick Starkel for Saturday’s home game against New Mexico State remains a mystery.
The senior quarterback appeared to injure his left arm during last Saturday’s loss at Western Michigan and wore a sling as he watched the final quarter of the game from the sidelines. Spartans head coach Brent Brennan said that Stakel is “in a good spot” but didn’t shed any light on the quarterback depth chart during his media session on Monday.
“I don’t talk about injuries, I have never done that,” Brennan said. “Nick’s getting evaluated by our staff and we’ve got to get into the week and figure out how that’s going to play out with practice. I’m not sure who that’s going to be, we’re evaluating that as we go.”
Starkel left Saturday’s 23-3 loss at Western Michigan after he was sacked late in the third quarter. The right-handed quarterback wore a sling around his left arm after he returned to the sidelines for the fourth quarter and returned to the Bay Area for further tests.
SJSU (2-2, 1-0 Mountain West) plays the independent Aggies (1-4) before getting into the heart of the conference schedule.
“People getting nicked up and people going through that stuff is all part of the college football season,” Brennan said. “How you handle that is based on, I think, how strong your team is and how strong that brotherhood is. Nick’s in a good spot and they’re working through it with our medical staff, so everyone’s kind of, ‘Let’s play. It doesn’t matter who it is at quarterback, let’s play.’ ”
Starkel, who was sacked six times during the game, finished 6-of-14 for 55 yards with an interception and a lost fumble.
His replacements didn’t fare any better.
In his collegiate debut, true freshman Walker Eget – whose brother Weston Eget is a quarterback at New Mexico State – earned the first crack at engineering a comeback attempt, but missed on his first four throws and went 1-of-8 for 8 yards.
Redshirt freshman Natano Woods, who saw limited action in mop-up duty during the season opener on Aug. 28, completed 2-of-4 passes for minus-4 yards. He was sacked twice.
“Obviously we did not play great at Western Michigan,” Brennan said. “They’re a good team, they’re well-coached and they just executed at a higher level than us – and that was disappointing.”
He added: “We’ve got a lot of work to do. That’s obvious by watching the tape.”
San Jose State could also turn to junior Nick Nash, who has taken snaps at quarterback in each of the previous two seasons but the past couple of weeks has been lining up at wide receiver.
Nash was targeted five times without a reception at Western Michigan. His only pass attempt this season came on a trick play the previous week at Hawaii. But a year ago, Nash had passing attempts in five of the eight games he played in and, as a quarterback, helped engineer a second-half comeback over San Diego State. In that game, he replaced an injured Starkel to complete 16-of-25 attempts for a career-high 169 yards and two touchdowns, Nash also rushed for 53 yards, including a 14-yard game-clinching touchdown. As a freshman in 2019, he completed 12-of-17 attempts for 133 yards and threw two touchdown passes against Air Force.
“Our intent with Nick is to be able to keep him moving around and doing a bunch of stuff for us,” Brennan said. “But we’ve got to get into practice (Tuesday) and see how all those pieces look.”
In 2020, Starkel completed 64.2 percent of his passes for 17 touchdowns and seven interceptions, but has been inconsistent so far this season. He’s completed 50.4 percent of his passes for six TDs and five interceptions, including a pair of pick-sixes, through the first four games.
Take away the touchdowns on the first five possessions of the season opener against Southern Utah, and the offense has found the end zone just four other times over the past 14 quarters.
In a trio of road contests in September, the Spartans averaged 9.0 points per game.
Brennan, after being asked about the sputtering offense, referenced the loss of wide receivers Bailey Gaither (graduation) and Tre Walker (turned pro), who left the program after the previous year’s Mountain West championship campaign.
“First, I would agree with you that it’s not been very fun to watch,” he said. “I think it’s a combination of some things. The departure of two really good playmakers on the perimeter, that’s the obvious one, and then just kind of getting into the flow of the season, the timing and that part of it with Nick and our skill has been a little bit all over the place.”
He added: “If it’s been frustrating for you, trust me it’s been frustrating for us.”
Asked about when he would like to settle on the QB depth chart in preparation, Brennan explained his stance on the topic of injuries.
“This is the reason I don’t talk about anyone getting injured,” Brennan said. “Because everything we’re talking about is the quarterback injury, right? And that takes away from what I think is the important thing, which is the game. Us having a home game for the first time in over a month, which is critical and awesome for our students and our fans and the city of San Jose.”